1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for searching a device on a network, and more particularly to a device searching system which can plainly display a searched device and its location information.
2. Related Background Art
Directory service has been provided as a method of efficiently searching and utilizing various resources (such as printers, servers and scanners) connected to a network.
Such directory service is, so to speak, a telephone directory of a network which stores various information. A specific example of a directory system using the directory service is LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). The specifications of LDAP are described in RFC (Request For Comments) 1777 which is standard specifications issued by IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force).
For example, by searching device terminals connected to a network by using the directory service, a list of device terminals usable by the network can be obtained.
However, this list does not provide location information of a device terminal in a way easy to recognize.
A device search system has been desired which is suitable for notifying a user of device hierarchical location information in a way easy to confirm. For example, if the device is a network printer, the device hierarchical location information may be “location of a printer nearest to the user on this floor”, “location of a color printer in a building” and the like.